


A Strange (and Wonderful) Summer

by myka1231



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 20:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9513923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myka1231/pseuds/myka1231
Summary: Hatake Kakashi was lost after the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha. Now every time he looks at his sensei's child, he sees the ghost of his loved ones.But when the need arises, can he leave the shadows and form new bonds?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MonarqueNocturne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonarqueNocturne/gifts).



> Thanks to the Kakairu Fest's mods for their work. This was a great and fun challenge.  
> I hope [MonarqueNocturne ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/MonarqueNocturne/pseuds/MonarqueNocturne) enjoys this and it follows the prompt as requested.  
> Thanks to [Te_azul](http://te-azul.livejournal.com/profile) for helping me to work this out.

**I.**

Hatake Kakashi was a good shinobi and a simple man, just walking around on the road of life, but somewhere along the way, he lost sight of the important things. And now, life was paying back. That’s what he thought in astonishment, frozen in front of his bathroom’s little mirror. 

But to understand this picture, one must go back to another time, when Team Minato was trying to work together and grow up as Konoha’s ninja. That was Kakashi’s turning point in life, the moment when his ninja way was forged, at the cost of Obito’s life. He couldn’t stop the loss of Rin either, but this was the reason his life became hopelessly ensnared with Naruto’s, who someday would become known as Konoha's most unpredictable, knuckleheaded ninja.

The kyuubi attack, that destroyed Konoha and a lot of her ninja, was a painful event for all of the villagers, but Yondaime’s death was particularly hard for Kakashi. That night he lost not only his sensei, but the man closer to family he had, the one who had stepped up for him after his father's suicide. When the Yellow Flash vanished into the night, the ashes of Konoha without Minato left Kakashi in complete devastation. It was understable, in the aftermath of the battle, that Kakashi’’s mental stability was a huge wreck.  At the abyss’ edge, with nothing to lose and a void in place of his heart, he looked desperately for any remnant of his mentor to anchor himself to sanity. And what stronger remnant of that person than his newborn child? 

Naruto, Minato’s son, was placed in the village’s orphanage for the child’s safety -knowing his jinchuriki status and his parents’ identity left him open to attacks, internal ones as much as external- but Kakashi was granted the right to visit him with discretion by Sandaime, after having seen the jounin’s state of mind. With the security measures placed by Sandaime clear in his head - the fact of Naruto being a jinchuriki couldn't be talked about- Kakashi waited a couple of months for his first visit to the orphanage to meet Naruto, enough to feel more in control of his feelings and to be discreet about the identity of the boy’s parents -Minato’s student visiting a blonde, blue eye orphan would be suspicious enough-. That’s not to say that Naruto met Kakashi as well, but he often carried a shadow keeping a silent watch over him, just to make sure the orphanage’s caretakers did not harm the boy and to prevent any home accident -in Naruto's case a street, store, wood and any other place accident.

It took four years for Kakashi to approach the boy, seeing the kid from a deliberate distance in the meantime -enough to ignore the pain his uncanny resemblance to Minato and his embodiment of Kushina’s personality awoke- and it was the fault of a strange man (more like a scrawny, barely out of his teens ninja) taking interest on his charge that forced the copy nin to take the final leap to move from the kyuubi's shadow to Naruto's sort of guardian.

In hindsight, it all began when Kakashi noted something off with the boy’s chakra as he played. After checking this abnormality with the sharingan, he decided the wise thing to do was talk about it with Sandaime and leave it to him. Once the decision was made, the copy nin was granted access to Sandaime’s office as soon as he could, after all, being a kickass ex ANBU operative had his perks. 

Behind his desk and with a pipe smoking in his mouth, Sandaime watched Kakashi with his usual calm expectancy, waiting for his ninja to gather his thoughts and bring his worries to words, since not being used to manifest them often did that to people. 

Carefully maintaining his lazy slouch and detached attitude, despite knowing the actual audience wouldn’t buy it, Kakashi finally spoke.

“I’m here to report my surveillance information of Yondaime’s son.” 

“Is that so?” -The knowing smirk the man threw his way annoyed Kakashi as hell, but he kept going with his findings. 

“The boy has passed his fourth birthday and has shown no chakra whatsoever.” 

Contemplating this fact, Sandaime frowned and spoke in the serious manner of the Hokage.

“I’m assuming you are conscious about the chakra development of children.”

“Yes, I’m aware that children that young have a very limited chakra development, but I’m talking about no chakra at all. Naruto shows no chakra of his own and only the kyuubi’s chakra has manifested itself.” 

“Well, that’s not expected, especially of the son of such a powerful ninja. Moreover, if Naruto didn’t possess a healthy amount of chakra, he couldn’t keep the kyuubi sealed inside.” 

That’s why Kakashi came to Sandaime with the issue, there wasn’t more for him to say. 

After a moment of consideration, Sandaime came to a decision of how to proceed. 

“Thank you for your report” -was  _ report _ said with sarcasm or was Kakashi paranoid?-  “I will deal with this concern appropriately.”

Kakashi was aware of the dismissal on Sandaime’s tone and he knew that as compromised as he was, he couldn’t deal with the problem himself, but the urge to ask was hard to ignore. 

"Is there something else?" -And that indulgent question was his clue to let the matter drop. He had his image to maintain.     

In the following weeks, Kakashi kept his regular watch when duty allowed it and that was enough to take notice of the new face popping around everywhere Naruto went. It was a ninja, a chunin of rank by the vest he wore and the way he moved, tan and with a bushy ponytail, unremarkable and on his late teens. 

However accurate Kakashi’s assessments usually were, this man proved himself different from his first impression in just days. 

Naruto was a mistrustful kid, used to the spite the villagers held for him, so resentful suspicion towards strangers was his default reaction and was promptly thrown at the chunin trying to get close to him. Despite the less than warm welcome, the chunin kept going with his efforts, trying different tactics until the ice started to crack. And all it took was a silly prank.   

It was a late spring day, tougher than others to Naruto because the owner of a toyshop, distinct for his over the top prices, had kicked the kid out loudly and violently. It was enough to impress even the general population, the same one who kicked Naruto out of their spaces every day. In a show of defiance often displayed by the boy, he had sulked outside the shop all afternoon, shouting his rage to any passersby. That’s the picture the chunin found when he met the jinchuriki in the evening. It didn’t take too much thought to put the pieces together and the young ninja said something in a whisper (that Kakashi wasn’t interested enough to put effort into understanding) and with a look of kinship, he sneaked to the shop to replace the owner’s chair cushion. When the owner in question went to seat himself in his well-worn chair, a crude, loud noise resounded and half of the village halted for a beat before resuming life with various levels of composure. When everyone was engrossed in their business again, Naruto followed the ninja to a more secluded spot to laugh his face off and cheer his new best friend for the lousy prank. The ninja launched himself in a minute description of the recent joke and spoke about a lot of similar ones for the boy to play on mean people. When that topic reached its end, the chunin offered to treat the kid to ramen at the shop he often sulked around. The way Naruto’s face light up at the invitation was astounding and his laughter was as strong as Kakashi’s memories of Minato-sensei.   

The next month brought a lot of short, but intense missions to Kakashi’s life, so he could only look in on Naruto on his way in and out of Konoha. However, that was enough to understand that the chunin, Umino Iruka, as Kakashi had found out, was there to stay, at least for a while. 

Kakashi could swear that he didn’t get wounded to catch a break and stay in his village for a more extended amount of time. But he could also say that his every day lateness was because of a lost kitty and a troubled grandma, so it’s always better not to bother with such statements. The fact was that Kakashi was granted downtime for the stab wound in his stomach to heal. And being aware that every day could be the last day of a ninja’s life, he seized the opportunity to finally approach Naruto and build a bond with his sensei’s kid. After all, if Naruto was to have bonds with someone, it was going to be him and not a lousy, scrawny chunin.

The first step to take when Kakashi wanted to speak to non-ninja, everyday people, was finding training ground number 6, where Konoha’s green beast spent his afternoons, manly and vigorous kicking ass. It was sad, in Kakashi’s mind, that the most normal person to trust and seek advice from in his life wore green spandex, but beggars can’t be choosers.   

Kakashi stood underneath a three at the edge of the training ground, expecting Gai to be done with his 1000 push-ups and acknowledge him and then proceed with the conversation he didn’t want to have, but needed to, because his social skills were somewhat impaired, so to speak. It wasn’t a long wait. 

“My eternal rival!” -Gai’s booming voice greeted him- “Have you come to challenge me in a contest of youth in the springtime? What a wonderful day!”

“Maaa, I wouldn’t go that far, I simply wish to speak to you.” 

It may have been the grim look on Kakashi’s face or his forced slouch or perhaps the careful way he wasn’t gritting his teeth, but the booming voice transformed itself to a serious one without another cue. 

“Well, my dear and eternal rival, I think that going for a drink may lend you the space to talk. I will be a youthful ear to hear you and a manly shoulder to support your burdens.”

Just like that, they were on a booth at the Kunai’s Edge, a bar owned by a couple of married shinobi -and that was a strange enough concept- that had retired after a lost leg and permanent deafness courtesy of an earth’s ninja bomb that killed said enemy ninja. At the cost of their ninja career, the couple came back to Konoha alive and settled down in the village proper, opening the bar that now catered particularly to Konoha’s ninja population with the promise of privacy, moderate illumination -enough to allow discretion but not to miss a surprise attack- and a good insurance policy against any damage. 

The sake was on their table and Gai was pouring the second cup by the time Kakashi finally spoke.

“I need advice, Gai.” 

And that was all he said for half an hour, all the while Gai just drank and waited Kakashi to elaborate on advice about what he was looking for. Gai's respectful way of dealing with his eternal rival’s problems made him the friend Kakashi knew could always count on. So Gai just sat and drank in silence, knowing his rival would talk eventually, when he felt secure enough to voice his troubles. 

“How do you make another person to like you?”

Gai’s face was about to explode in a wide grin when Kakashi risked a glance at his friend and promptly put a stop to the idea of his rival seeking romantic advice. 

When Gai’s disappointment was tempered enough, Kakashi talked again.

“I’m talking about children, how do you approach a child without scaring them away?”

After a considering moment, a knowing air painted his face and Gai took another drink before finally giving Kakashi the words he was looking for. 

“My esteemed and wonderful rival, the first thing you have to do is smile and seem friendly.”

Frowning about the logistics of making the copy nin appear friendly, the green beast just kept talking.

“Above all, once you approach them, you must keep going to their side, make the child in question know you are there. No matter how upset or disinterested in you the kid may seem, you must persevere. Kids only open to you when they feel safe. You must keep trying and never give up.”

A heavy silence descended upon their booth while Kakashi contemplated Gai’s words.  

“I’m so moved that my eternal rival is looking to nurture Konoha’s future!”

Gai boomed with reborn vigor as a sunset tempested sea outlining his figure appeared out of thin air.

“I should look for a disciple to nurture as ninja or I will climb the Hokage mountain using only the fingers of my left hand.”

There was comfort in routines and Kakashi was at ease when Gai was Gai.       

The next day Kakashi went looking for Naruto at his usual haunts to have his first face to face with the boy. On his way across the village, he noted several people stopping in their tracks to look at him fixedly and with something akin to shock on their faces. He didn’t make too much out of the fact, since it wasn’t the most strange behavior his presence had caused to those around him. 

He found Naruto in his favorite playing spot in the forest surrounding Konoha, sporting an unusually intense look of concentration on his face, staring at a blank paper tag. This was the perfect moment to approach the boy, for there weren’t many instances, since Umino had shown up, in which the boy left the side of his chunin best friend of his own will. Taking the precaution to make enough noise to not startle the kid, Kakashi entered the play clearing with a smile evident in the wrinkles around his exposed eye. The next moments were perplexing, because whatever he had expected of his first meeting with Naruto, he certainly hadn’t expected the four-year-old to laugh to tears at his appearance. However, it wasn’t long until an explanation present itself, no matter how upsetting it was. 

Fighting to calm his laughter enough to speak, Naruto said his first words to his silent guard.

“Why are you wearing a pink polkadot mask?” -And promptly lost the fight against his laugh.

Without missing a beat -and realizing the reason behind the villagers’ odd behavior- Kakashi went with the flow of this unexpected turn of events, taking advantage of the non-threatening effect this had. Payback would come later. 

“Maaa, I thought today was a good day to try a new model, don’t you think?”

With doubt written clearly on his face, Naruto went back to his blank paper tag. 

“What are you doing with a blank piece of paper?”

“Don’t you know of paper tags, you're a ninja, right?” -the mistrustful tone Naruto used with strangers came to his voice.

“Well, of course I know of paper tags, but I have never looked at the blank ones as if they had eaten my dessert.”

The scowl Naruto sent his way was ferocious enough to chase anyone away from him. Luckily, Kakashi was too stubborn to go just from that alone. 

“What are you trying to do, brat?”

“Not of your business, old man.”

With a twitch in his showing eye, Kakashi decided to ignore the age reference and kept trying to get an answer out of Naruto.

After a few prods here and there and some time later, Kakashi caught the gist of Naruto’s purposed focus. Heaving a sigh from his perch in a nearby tree stump, he kept supervising Naruto’s frustrated attempts to write a stink bomb paper tag. 

For a child his age, Naruto had a lot of tenacity, but unfortunately not much natural talent. To Kakashi it felt inevitable that all the frustration rising inside the boy would explode eventually. 

With a strangled scream, Naruto stomped his way to Kakashi’s perch and made himself a seat at the copy nin’s side with a hard fall. Kakashi kept his gaze on the book he was pretending to read while the boy worked. When he lifted his gaze, the boy was stubbornly looking at the clouds. With an obvious gesture of searching the sky, Kakashi finally spoke.

“Did you find it?”  

“Did I find what?” -Was Naruto’s disgruntled answer.   

“Maaa, the solution. I can’t read the way to solve your practice problems in this stump of clouds. But I’ve always been bad at cloud reading.”

“It’s nice looking at all the clouds, there’s one over there that has jiji-sama’s shape.”

It was painfully close to something Minato had said to Kakashi, one of the many times his sensei tried to make him remember he wasn’t only a shinobi, but also a human being and looking to the sky gave men a sense of perspective. He fought to clear his throat and avoid the sting in his eyes.

Remembering Gai’s words of advice, he decided to let the matter drop and added another encouragement a beat later.

“You need to keep trying, because the clouds don’t have answers.” 

A weighted pause and a harsh stare later, Naruto went back to his tag.

“You say such weirds things. Of course the clouds don’t have answers, I was just resting for a bit.”

And without more delay, Naruto renewed his efforts. But this time, Kakashi threw pointers to correct the mistakes that prevented the child success and within a few hours, Naruto had his first homemade stink bomb. 

In the middle of his happy babbled cheer, Naruto told him about how his Iruka-nii had taught him a lot of funny pranks and how he had played a lot of them on several people, Hokage included. Kakashi didn’t know at which point he joined the blond in his laughter, but he could notice Naruto’s chakra for the first time and understood that he was who taught him how to infuse it in the paper tag. However, he didn’t know how had Naruto reached this great amount of his own chakra when he didn’t show any a month ago.   

A couple of months later, after some more afternoons of practice and a fair amount of ramen -the leech of a kid was a bottomless pit- the newly dubbed Kakashi-nii was looking at his reflection in the little mirror in his bathroom because the pranks -silly and harmless such as the tinted pink mask- had kept happening and now his hair was a tone of orange that made Naruto’s favorite clothes look normal and his head looked like a radioactive blasphemy to every eye who happened upon his person. But the aggravating thing was that he had not caught a whiff of the perpetrator nor their identity.       

**II.**

It was his fourth month as Kakashi-nii and the copy nin was feeling contentment about his new status. His life’s dynamics were changing in a good way, no longer a tedious continuum of missions, death and wounds. Now, he longed to be home so he could take the brat -his own dubbed name to Naruto- to ramen and help him a little with his chakra manipulation, improving on every dumb prank he played on his new favorite target, a chunin named Mizuki. Kakashi didn’t care much about that man, because he never really liked him, so as long as Naruto worked hard and learned, he didn’t scold him for abusing a fellow nin.  

However, he couldn’t shake the disquiet feeling in his gut about the unsolved mysteries revolving the healthy amount of chakra Naruto had access now or what the hell it was about this Iruka-nii who always intruded in Naruto’s and his time together with an innocent smile and no explanation of his reasons of befriending the boy. And although the pranks still aimed at Kakashi were innocuous and far between, he didn’t appreciate the fact they were still happening. 

So as wonderful as the summer seemed, the strangeness in the air didn’t let Kakashi enjoy it as much as he wanted. The constant signs of alert were wearing on him, leaving him on edge and restless and very, very cranky. 

Those were the motives that made Kakashi a very disgruntled copy nin when Naruto declared with his brilliant enthusiasm -and wasn’t it annoying how difficult it was to deny the brat’s wishes and put a damper on so much shine? - that it was time for his two favorite adults to meet each other so they could have a peaceful meal together.      

The air was still hot and humid that evening in Ichiraku, but he grudgingly only arrived half an hour later than the appointed meeting time, looking for that blonde head and loud voice that was already seated inside. Slouching his way to the brat’s side, he posed for his usually affected first impression.

“Maaa, sorry for the wait, I was coming here when a flock of ravens abducted an old lady’s cat, so I had to follow them to rescue the pet and come back all the way over to the old lady’s home to give back her only companion.” 

“No worries, Hatake-san. We haven’t waited that long and were just catching up, so please sit with us” -the smile that came with the words was good, but not good enough for someone used to see underneath the underneath like Kakashi was, who could see the forced brightness on the chunin’s tanned face.

“Obviously, you know who I am, but I haven’t had the opportunity to catch your name.” 

The oblivious loud kid’s protests otherwise did nothing to diffuse the grown ups’ introduction. 

“My apologies, Hatake-san. I’m Umino Iruka and it’s great to finally meet the person who’s always helping Naruto out.” 

“Well, he admires the original prankster very much, so it’s not difficult to give some pointers to help such a motivated kid” -the emphasis in the word ”prankster” and the nod to Iruka made clear who was the admired character. 

The enforced politeness wasn’t an auspicious beginning to the dinner, but once the three had ordered their meals, things went more smoothly and at the end of evening they were comfortable enough to say that it was a good outing and pleasant first meeting. 

That way, the summer’s air changed its oppressive weight to make room for a tranquil wind to blow occasionally. 

It also happened that this wind tended to pass when Naruto and his two nii-san were enjoying time together. And as this time kept becoming more and more frequent, the feeling of disquiet dissolved itself to be replaced with an intrigued one bothering Kakashi, who could openly admit he was very interested in the chunin who entered his life just the last spring. 

So when the first Narutoless meeting -a casual one, just to be clear- came to pass, it felt like a natural event, no more curious than two casual acquaintances meeting at a local bar. 

That night was the beginning of Iruka and Kakashi’s friendship, as they had their first in depth talk and learned a little about the other nin. The conversation topic was varied enough, going from their first and foremost common subject, the orphaned brat both cared about, to other topics such as mission bloopers and village’s inner various incidents and political schemes, to finally approach more personal matters such as the true colors of Iruka’s relationships and why Naruto kept playing his pranks on certain chunin. Somewhere around the third and tenth round of sake, Iruka confided him how he and Mizuki had been friends from childhood and how they indulged themselves in a casual fling after a vicious mission -not an uncommon practice among shinobi. After that, no matter the number of clear statements and subtle hints Iruka gave to Mizuki about the one time only nature of the sex encounter, the other man kept behaving as if Iruka was his property. When the facts were uncovered, Kakashi couldn’t be happier for all the pranks he helped Naruto to play over the last months.     

The peak of summer made its inexorable way into existence, leaving the small humans captured in its wake sweating, slow and sleepy. A restless time for the working adults and a wonderful time for the children to play in the open air without much to worry about. In honor of the spirit, Naruto was in a wonderful mood and it was decided a trip to tire him out -sorry, to spend a great time- was in order. After a brief and polite argument between the three travelers -or Iruka supported by Naruto vs Kakashi in a long and messy water war- the destination was declared, the beach. 

That weekend on the beach became a memorable piece of life, the weather along the sea was a lot more agreeable than Konoha at the end of July, and the place they set up camp was untouched by men, leaving nature to flourish in all her force. 

Under such conditions, they taught Naruto survival lessons -how to forage for shellfish on the cliff borders, how to find the best fishing spot and the way to separate eatable plants from the poisonous ones- but above all, they had a lot of fun. 

They swam for hours to later dry on the sun and played “we buried Kakashi’s book somewhere on the sand”, to the copy nin’s horror. They built castles and forts, and cooked over their campfire while singing and telling scary stories until Naruto had to force his companions to sleep close enough so he could squish himself between them, feeling safe and happy for the first time in his short life. 

Iruka and Kakashi couldn’t have refused any of it, because Naruto looked so happy they would have fought anyone who would dare to take that away.  

However, those weren’t the only memorable moments of the trip. 

With Naruto’s best interests at heart, they grew close, spending so much time together with the boy. Every interaction forced them to get comfortable with each other and after talking over drinks a couple times since the first casual encounter, they found more common ground and a lot to share, little and silly things that made a regular day into a good one. 

As much as their intimacy grew, life could not be kind and leave them to realize it in a peaceful way. Life likes to put oblivious fools in uncomfortable situations. So, it was waist deep in the sea, with only underwear on to keep modesty untainted that Iruka's blushing face became an obvious sign of attraction to the genius Hatake, who had previous knowledge of the younger nin varied sexuality, but hadn’t given more thought to the topic. Kakashi couldn’t help but be aware of how blurred the lines between them were and wonder.

The scary stories told around the campfire led to the most awkward night in the young ninjas’ life. But how to deny the blonde menace the chance to sleep between two grown-ups and pretend, for this once, they were a true family? 

Luckily for both ninjas, they departed the next morning, back to Konoha, and the days after were an ugly mess of clumsy hands and avoided stares so painfully evident even Naruto had to ask about it. 

When Kakashi was requested for an S-class mission, he felt an incredible relief and couldn’t have been happier for the hard and bloody fights that were sure to happen in the coming days.  

Three days later found him in a strained and miserable state, having to chase a missing nin to a smelly swamp, knowing certainly he was paying for his unsavory happy thoughts about killing another human being. 

The fight, upon finding the target, was ugly and messy, but fast. Kakashi felt so off of his game that a nin who any other time would be no trouble, managed to land some heavy blows. He felt so damn glad when he could call the mission finished.   

On his way back, the copy nin bandaged a couple of broken ribs and did a fairly solid tourniquet on his left thigh. Once the walls of Konoha came in sight, Kakashi felt deeply grateful and vowed that he would think of a way to deal with Iruka the minute he was in the safety of the village. That was a thing Kakashi never did, get distracted because he was close to home and it payed well a lot of times on his ninja career. This was one of those times. 

He came to a halt, sensing two ninjas coming from the east and decided to wait, expecting them to be part of the patrols constantly around Konoha. Somehow, something was strange in their movements, the path they were taking wasn’t tactically sound to keep watch of the surrounding area, since they were running on the ground. When they were in Kakashi’s visual range, he could read their lips, and that’s how he discovered that Naruto had run away from the village and they were the patrol on the path closest to the spot they last saw him. The copy nin could feel a howl coming from his chest and his mind went into overdrive thinking of the thousands of possibilities of something harming the brat. With a breath to calm his worried nerves, he started to make the hand seals to call his ninken, but suddenly he sensed a change in the forest’s natural noises.     

The first signal of distress on his surroundings was an unnatural gush of air blowing suddenly from the opposite direction of the wind. Kakashi located the source of it easily and charged in its direction to investigate the cause. The closer he came to that point amid the forest, the noise of metal clashing on metal and voices yelling vicious threats, became more distinct. However, once he caught a thin wail of child terror and anger, he was consumed with frozen fire propelling him to go faster. Eventually, he came to a stop within view of three ninjas -without any stated affiliation- firing jutsu and other weapons at a barrier seal. He felt his back stiffen in shock at the unbelievable sight of Naruto’s state. Inside the barrier, he could see an unharmed Naruto crying in fright and a red chakra full of hate coming from the child. 

He faltered a second -and for an instant he was an ANBU among many, fighting in the night against a terrible, unstoppable beast- before regaining his focus to charge against the three ninjas with a vicious kind of protectiveness he didn’t know he possessed. There was no space to think about any alternative but killing the threat to this precious, breakable child and that’s what Kakashi did without regard for his previous exhaustion or injuries, because losing Naruto wasn’t an option he could take. He would die protecting his loved one if it came to that.  

The enemies were two jounin level men and one chunin level, not the best odds, but Kakashi had dealt with far worst. He enjoyed fighting each ninja, giving back everything they threw to Naruto tenfold. One of them used katon ninjutsu, the other futon and the third used an assortment of an impressive number of weapons. He took all of three minutes to dispatch them, one minute per enemy nin. Once that was over, he took a closer inspection of the barrier to reach the kid inside. It felt like a regular barrier, but the sharingan told him that it was made with Naruto’s chakra and that it was stronger than any common barrier. The copy nin couldn’t find any activating seal to stop it and the heavy anxiety the fight put on hold came back with renewed strength. Without a solid plan, the next best option was to talk with the boy who hadn’t stop crying and seemed not have noticed his Kakashi-nii standing there getting more freaked out with every passing moment.   

It wasn’t until he voiced the kid’s name with his most commanding and loud tone that the sobbing stopped long enough for Naruto to see that he was no longer been attacked. With a centering sigh, he saw the kyuubi’s red chakra slowly disappear and get absorbed inside the seal on the child’s navel along with the barrier, which seal was carefully wound around the kyuubi’s. The copy nin was impressed despite himself, seeing such an elegant fuinjutsu, but he felt his throat clog with the worry caused by the idea of someone tampering with his sensei’s Eight Trigram Seal. Kakashi waited patiently for both seals to disappear from Naruto’s skin before reaching for him -and was it possible to feel this much relief? - and carried him to the village while´he whispered soothing nothings he didn’t thought himself capable of uttering. 

Once inside Konoha, Naruto was calm and sleepy from all the action. But Kakashi had zero intentions of letting him go -holding him against himself in a reassuring way, feeling his small and still alive body-, instead he was on a clear path to the Hokage Tower to demand some answers he felt he deserved since some time now. All the fear caused by the previous events was twisting in his guts and transforming in a flaming rage at being kept ignorant of so many of the secrets around Naruto’s jinchuuriki status.  

When they reached the Hokage’s office, the sky had been dark for a while and there weren’t many people around. The ANBU posted outside the door was wise enough to not stand in his way when he let it bang against the opposite wall with the force of his, until then, contained anger, simmering until the boiling point. 

From behind his desk, the Hokage looked at Kakashi and Naruto with calm eyes and nodded to let them come in. 

“Close the door, if you will” -was the Hokage’s command. Kakashi almost left it open out of spite, but he could never do it, for the shinobi in him had too much discipline to disregard a direct order.    

“Sandaime-sama, I found this in the forest outside the village” -and the copy nin lifted Naruto still in his arms, careful, very much aware of his body's frailty, to indicate what he found-. “He was being attacked by enemy ninjas but, curiously, he was unharmed and inside a barrier seal, releasing a visible layer of a red chakra full of hate” -he dared to say since Naruto was sound asleep. With every word out of his mouth he became more taunt, his anger leaking into every fiber of his being. 

At this point, Sandaime was looking equal parts piss off and intrigued, but all came to a halt when a new voice sounded at the door. 

“Excuse me, Sandaime-sama. Umino Iruka reporting as you requested.” 

“I believe that our answers have come to us, Kakashi-kun” -were Sandaime’s words. 

**III.**

After a moment charged with tension threatening to snap and destroy everything within its range, Sandaime cleared his throat and claimed the attention of the two ninjas standing motionless inside the office. 

“Kakashi-kun, could you pass Naruto to Bear for him to be check at the hospital?” -at his nod to the door, an ANBU appeared to take the child. With a lot of reluctance, Kakashi gave up the child held protectively against his side and felt achingly empty without Naruto’s warm body supported by his arms. Once the kid was taken, Sandaime proceed with his talk.  

“I’m aware that you know each other, but I don’t think that you were introduced by anybody. Kakashi-kun, this is Umino Iruka. He became a chunin in the last exams taken in Kiri and since he has shown great knowledge and talent in fuinjutsu, I gave him the mission to investigate and research a solution to Naruto’s issues with his chakra. “

Making a pause to inhale from his pipe and to let Kakashi process the information, Sandaime spoke to Iruka.

“I’m sure you have heard about Kakashi-kun, but is only polite to make things even between you two. Iruka-kun, this is Hatake Kakashi, one of our finest jounin and most loyal shinobi.”

Iruka gave an awkward bow to the copy nin, but Kakashi didn’t look in his direction, his pride stinging in betrayal, and kept speaking to Sandaime. 

“Sandaime-sama, are you telling me that this chunin” -never had the word chunin sounded more offensive than when Kakashi spat it there- “helped Naruto get access to his chakra?” 

First, Iruka looked somewhat confused at the heavy tension coming from Kakashi, but now, he looked like he just drank sour milk, so he took a deep breath to keep his temper in check.

“If I may say a word, Hokage-sama?”

“Of course, Iruka-kun, go ahead. And I would like to know about this barrier Kakashi-kun was talking about” -Sandaime said to the frowning chuunin but without taking his eyes from the strained copy nin’s posture. 

“Well, as I already informed the Hokage, the issues concerning Naruto’s access to his own chakra were very simple to fix and they were produced by an extra binding that was placed over the original seal by someone after Naruto's first year of life. As we don’t know who could have done that extra binding or what purpose they had, I used an old Whirlpool seal to connect an already existing seal with it and create a protective barrier in tune with the bearer’s chakra, so when the chakra wavers in distress, the seal is activated. I’m sorry for not telling you this sooner. It felt like overstepping the parameters of the mission to alter the seal, but I felt it would be good protection for Naruto, so I did it anyway. I was going to inform you, Sandaime-sama, but I haven’t had the time and didn’t think it would be triggered so soon.”   

With a low bow to Sandaime to excuse himself for his misjudgement, Iruka waited in silence for his reprimand. 

However, Sandaime limited himself to speak to Kakashi, who was looking more composed but still angry, going by his dark expression. 

“Kakashi-kun, I hope that your doubts have been cleared, but if there is anything more you want to ask, now is the time.”

“Maaa, I didn’t know we had fuinjutsu experts so young and good enough to deceive. I have nothing more to ask, so if you will excuse me.”

Without expecting to be dismissed, but having nothing more to say and mentally exhausted, Kakashi made the seals needed to banish himself from the Hokage’s office. When he was safely in his apartment, he smashed the closest object at hand (the little dishware he owned), very disturbed about the betrayed feeling burning his insides. 

It was such an alien feeling, the sense of having made a fool of himself, the hurt of having trusted someone, only to have that trust thrown back in his face with second intentions and half truths. Of course, he was aware of his unreasonable behavior. If the Hokage gave a ninja a classified mission, as was the class for any mission involving Naruto, then it was Iruka’s duty to keep the information to himself, but he couldn’t help himself. He had developed feelings for the chunin and he felt them getting crushed thinking that the only reason Iruka spent time with him was because of a mission. Never mind that it couldn’t have being all the time they spent together with Naruto part of a mission, as Naruto’s chakra was that of a normal kid -if not a little too much-  since a long time ago. 

Kakashi paced around the limited space of his apartment, his mind in a whirlwind of thoughts he could recognize were caused by shock, because for the first time in his entire life, the now obvious facts surrounding Iruka’s appearance in Naruto’s life -and by default his life as well- had blindsided him completely.

He could remember every step he took following Iruka the month after the chunin first met Naruto. Since his early morning training to his nightly routine before bed, passing by his outings with friends and his assistant duties at the Hokage Tower, nothing was out of the ordinary or suspicious. How could he, Sharingan Kakashi, ninja of a thousand jutsu, not have seen the too coincidental facts of Naruto’s suddenly having normal human chakra and Iruka befriending the lonely child, being anything but connected?

When he felt more in control of himself, the copy nin decided to make some tea and then think calmly about what to do next. He was looking for his kettle when he heard someone knocking at his door and could feel the familiar chakra he had come to long for. He was instantly tense and doubtful about what to do, because the anger and confusion Iruka was feeling were strong enough to be perceived even without seeing his expressive face.  

The second time Iruka knocked, Kakashi went to open the door, knowing that if he didn’t smooth their relationship, they would be over. 

Iruka looked relieved when he saw Kakashi at the other side of the door, so Kakashi made a nod indicating for him to enter. However, once the door clicked closed, the temper boiling under Iruka’s skin was released. 

“What the hell was that!” -if the chunin’s voice was louder than normal, Kakashi was wise enough to make no comment. 

“Maaa, you have to be more specific. What is that?” -if Kakashi had sounded half the smart ass he was trying to be, Iruka would have reached for his kunai, but as it was, he sounded almost scared. 

“You know damn well I’m talking about your attitude back there. I don’t know why, but I’m telling you now that if you underestimated me for being only a chunin, I can show you how wrong you are whenever you want.”

With a conflicted sigh, Kakashi went back to the kitchen.

“Would you like some tea before you maim me?”

That question caught Iruka by surprise, having readied himself for more than a verbal fight. 

“Yeah, that would be nice.”   

With a look at Kakashi’s back, Iruka went to sit at the worn couch on one side of the small one room apartment. After a few minutes, Kakashi put a tray with two cups of tea on the coffee table in front of said couch and proceeded to sit himself at the chunin’s side.   

They stalled themselves with pouring the tea and taking quiet sips before any talk was uttered. Kakashi was unsure of how to explain his earlier behavior and Iruka didn’t know what to think about it, but that it had hurt. Seeing that the copy nin wasn’t in a talkative mood, the younger nin decided that he would start saying what he needed.

“So, I don’t know why you talked like you were interrupted in the bathroom, but it felt like you thought the fact I was chunin meant I’m a useless ninja and that hurt. I may not be the great copy nin, but I can hold my own in a battle.”

“Maaa, maybe I was interrupted in the bathroom and you are over thinking what happened?”  

The flat stare the chunin sent his way was enough to tell Kakashi that the chunin didn’t appreciate his weak excuse. 

Trying hard to not fidget in his seat, Kakashi steeled his resolve and spoke the truth for once. 

However, he couldn’t help but to avoid the other man's eyes and try to look somewhere else. 

“Well, you see, you might not be the great copy nin but were fully capable of fooling him about your intentions towards Naruto, and myself” -the last part was a whispered mumble and Kakashi was horrified to feel his blood rushing to his face in a telltale blush. 

He heard Iruka take a deep breath, sounding like he just saw Naruto decline a ramen bowl. Nervous at the shocked sound, he shot a quick glance at the chunin. The dopey grin and the dawning expression on a blushed face was a loud answer to his implicit declaration. 

“My intention was to complete the mission I was assigned, but since I got to spend time with Naruto, and with you as well, my intentions have been loud and clear. I just care…”

With an uncomfortable laugh, Iruka seemed to compose himself, all the while Kakashi was wide eyed and still blushing like a fool.     

“I think I’m starting to see underneath the underneath, indeed” -Iruka said with a half mischievous, half seductive voice before approaching Kakashi on the couch and bringing his face close to the clothed one. Looking at the still wide eyed look on Kakashi’s face, Iruka took the final leap and kissed the hidden lips he longed. 

With the contact of Iruka’s full lips upon himself, Kakashi was finally brought back to his body -recently occupied by a gaping fish- and with a wolfish smirk yanked his mask out of his way. 

The next day, Kakashi was summoned by the Hokage. Not because he now had a brat to annoy and a boyfriend to molest, his ninja career was going to be less busy. Those were the copy nin musings while he showered before presenting himself at the Tower. He just had to walk away from a sleep messed Iruka to fulfil his ninja duties and it had never been so hard.

He supposed this was his new life. All thoughts stopped as he looked himself in the mirror in his tiny bathroom, noting that, this time, his hair was a deep purple color. With a sense of horror growing in his stomach, he went to inspect the shampoo bottle resting innocently in his shower. When the offending item was within reach, he took it and, for the first time, saw the seal concealing the real purpose of the product, hair dye. He turned at the laughing voice coming from the door, where Iruka rested against the frame holding the real bottle of shampoo he always used.   

The terrible feeling settled itself with the understanding that every prank that was played on him in the past months could be achieved by the same seal currently disguising the dye, providing that the person to place the seal was capable of breaking to his apartment and avoiding the myriad of very dangerous traps he had in place. 

With the same mischievous smile of the previous night, Iruka kept to his pose against the doorframe.

“You deserved that a little. Just to remind you to never underestimate anyone based only on their rank. I knew you were following me for a month before you came to trust me and today’s purple hair was for that stunt in the Hokage’s office. Consider this a reminder lesson.” 

When he could place the feeling settled in his guts, he recognized it as resignation. He was stuck with a chunin prankster of a boyfriend. But he supposed that, on the bright side, he would always be thinking on his feet. 

With a bark of unchecked laughter, he resigned himself to be the subject of the combined efforts of the two pranksters that taught him to be more than a simple ninja, to be the brother of a bright and incorrigible brat and the boyfriend of a kind, mischievous and sexy young man. Who knows, with a bit of luck the three of them together could survive the harsh realities they had faced and just be a happy family. 

Only time would tell. 


End file.
